“You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them.” Malcolm S. Forbes
The world is filled with people who, in a sense, can do nothing for us: the challenge is whether or not we see them. My friend Bill Bracken is a chef in California: a really good chef who could work anywhere. But he chose to open a community kitchen to feed people in need. In good times or bad, that’s a pretty big group of people. Skillfully and creatively, he’s built a organization (https://www.brackenskitchen.org) that is “committed to recovering, re-purposing and restoring both food and lives”. Like one of my other friends, Jon Ponder, who founded Hope for Prisoners (https://hopeforprisoners.org), they are doing much for people who otherwise may have done nothing for them. But in helping, they have helped themselves and their communities. Giving back is always important; but in this pandemic-scarred world, it is a societal imperative that cries out for people like Bill and Jon. We all know people like them, just like we all know things we could be doing to alleviate the suffering of people who can do nothing for us. Maybe one of this pandemic’s lessons is to see them and do something for them anyway. Because when we see a need and do nothing, we diminish ourselves. Be mindful of family or colleagues or friends, or the countless others who we don’t know, that may be hurting… then take an extra moment to imagine what you could do to help them today.
Malcolm S. Forbes (1919 – 1990): American entrepreneur and Publisher
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